Brave New Dimension
by storyduststories
Summary: Raven has a lot to learn about life on Earth and the Titans are more than happy to help. Part of my "Showcase" series.
1. A Hippopotamus for Christmas

**It behooves you to read the foreword for this series first, which you can find as the first chapter of "Showcase" on my profile.**

 **This one may or may not be updated with other similar pieces, but for now I'll mark it as complete.**

 **Chapter summary: The Titans get ready for Christmas.**

* * *

Raven smells the pine before she hears the vacuum. It smells like an air freshener, one of the little toy like things Cyborg hangs over the rearview mirror in his car. It's airy and fresh and not at all what she expects to smell walking down the empty hallway to the Titans' living room. Nor does she expect to see the tiny green pine needles littering the floor, painting a direct path. A pine tree, she realizes. A pine tree has made its way through this hallway. She continues on, now in pursuit of answers as much as she's in pursuit of a cup of tea on this blustery winter morning.

As she nears the doors to the living room, she hears the telltale sound of the vacuum. It's loud and abrasive, especially at this hour, and definitely not what she wants to deal with once she steps through those doors. Or levitates, as the case may be. But she's come too far now. She can sense all four of her teammates on the other side of those doors, which means she's the only one out of the loop. They all do a lot of things she doesn't care for, but if nothing else, Raven _does_ care to know what's going on. Answers first, then tea. Then leaving. Immediately.

Robin is very close to the doors when they open. He's wrestling with the extended cord of a vacuum cleaner while also trying to push it across the floor, a remarkably ungraceful feat for such a skilled acrobat. He looks up to greet her. "Hey, Raven," he says, and then continues to push the vacuum towards a concentrated scattering of pine needles. He's rather unbothered; merry, even.

When she realizes she senses the same feelings from her teammates, she sidesteps Robin and directs her attention to the other end of the room. Starfire is a colorful, tinkling blur as she darts up and around a large pine tree propped by the window next to their television like a hummingbird. She's stringing dim lights and delicately arranging ornaments retrieved from a large cardboard box on the floor. Occasionally, Raven catches glimpses of Beast Boy as a squirrel dashing in and out of branches, arranging ornaments of his own. Together, Raven can tell they've added quite a bit of adornment to an otherwise unremarkable pine tree.

Off to the side, Cyborg is fiddling with more cords. One clearly goes to the vacuum cleaner, but the rest disappear somewhere around the vicinity of the tree; Raven guesses they might power the lights.

When they notice her, Starfire waves. "Good morning, Raven!" Beast Boy chatters and flicks his bushy tail in greeting before retrieving another ornament.

"Hey, Rae," Cyborg says. He doesn't look up from the outlet where he's arranging the cords, doing his best not to tangle anything.

"Good morning," Raven says and heads for the kitchen area.

Robin must hear the uncertainty in her voice because he turns off the infernal vacuum, though the floor is still covered in a generous dispersion of pine needles. "Sorry about all this," he says, a little sheepish with a hand rubbing the back of his neck. Even through his mask his brow is furrowed, apologetic. "It's probably not what you wanted to deal with first thing in the morning."

Raven retrieves a small kettle and fills it with water before responding. "What is all this, anyway?"

"It is the Christmas, Raven!" Starfire says, speeding over to show her an ornament. It's a pale red orb with silvery, elegant cursive lettering spelling out " _Merry Christmas_ ".

"Not quite yet, Star. We're just getting ready for it," Robin says.

"Oh. It is almost the Christmas, then," Starfire says and retreats to hang the ornament from an as of yet unencumbered branch.

"Christmas?" Raven asks, retrieving a mug from a cupboard. She's a little surprised that this is something Starfire knows and she doesn't, but she tries to stay casual about it.

However, it seems Beast Boy can't really help himself. Next to the half full box of decorations, he shifts back to human and says, "Rae! Don't tell me you don't know what Christmas is."

Raven looks at him impassively.

"Seriously, Rae?" Cyborg says.

Frowning now, Raven says, "I wasn't exactly born here, you know."

"You didn't celebrate Christmas on Azarath?" Robin asks. He's leaning against the vacuum, most certainly intrigued.

"No."

"We do not recognize the Christmas on Tamaran either," Starfire says. "I have just learned about it this morning."

"Huh. Guess I never thought about it really being an Earth thing," Beast Boy says.

"Well, yeah," Cyborg says, standing up. "It's such a big deal, you'd think everybody celebrated it."

"Your life here on Earth isn't the standard for all life," Raven says.

"Who knew?" Beast Boy says, but he's grinning cheekily with his ears perked up.

"The way we live here isn't even the standard for Earth," Cyborg says, "but it is pretty common."

"Humans on Earth do not all celebrate this Christmas?" Starfire asks. She's floating by the top of the tree with a handful of ornaments. Raven is momentarily glad that Starfire doesn't know everything and that she isn't the only clueless one.

"No, just most," Robin says.

There is obviously another pressing issue on the tip of Starfire's tongue, but Raven saves the boys from tackling that difficult question, of which she only has an inkling. "Well, what is it, anyway?" she asks.

"It's Christmas! You know..." Beast Boy says.

"No," Raven says, "I don't." Her kettle begins to whistle, so she turns her back to them to finish preparing her tea. She's still hoping to get a quick, succinct answer and leave with her tea, her patience and sanity still intact. It's starting to look less and less likely with the circuitous way she's getting answers.

When everyone seems to be at a loss for words, Raven turns around, steaming mug in hand with her tea steeping. "Well? Didn't you have to explain this to Starfire this morning? When you dragged a _whole pine tree_ into our _living room_?" For a moment, she focuses on Robin, who seems to be lost in thought, and then Beast Boy and Cyborg, who are looking at each other. Starfire is just as confused as she is.

"When you put it that way, it _does_ sound kinda weird," Beast Boy says, mostly to himself.

"Well, yeah," Cyborg says. He steps down closer to the tree, where Beast Boy is still sitting, bemused. "It's just that…"

"Just _what_?" Raven asks when he trails off. A hard edge to her voice warns them that they're walking a fine line.

"We didn't really expect you to not know what Christmas was," Robin said. He preoccupies himself with straightening out the cord to the vacuum cleaner, which has become no more or less tangled in the time he's been standing there, idling.

"Why would I?"

"You're… I mean…" Beast Boy says. He thinks for a moment. "Starfire's, like, an _alien_ , dude. Of course she didn't know what Christmas was. But you…"

He clearly senses the need for delicacy but doesn't know how to employ any tact. Raven would be happy to let him flounder, but she's irritated at their nearsightedness. "I'm from another dimension," Raven says, matter-of-factly. She shouldn't need to remind them.

"Yeah, but you're human," Cyborg says.

"Half. And didn't you just tell me that not all humans celebrate Christmas?"

"You're right, Raven," Robin says. Beast Boy and Cyborg seem relieved that he's taken over, since they'd been digging themselves a grave the more they stuttered. They're more than happy to pass the shovel to Robin. "We just hadn't thought about it is all. It took us by surprise."

"So, what? You won't explain it to me because you expected me to already know?"

Robin has a less eloquent response to that. "We're sorry, Raven," he says. "There's no reason we can't explain it to you too."

Earlier, when Starfire had come upon them hauling the recently chopped pine tree through the tower's hallways, they'd given her a watered down explanation. Skipping the religious connotations, they gave her the more immediately relevant secular version. Robin had a feeling that this wouldn't work as well with Raven, at least not for long, but the simplest thing was to try anyway. "Every year, people put pine trees in their living rooms and decorate them. Parents will put presents under the tree during the night for their kids to find Christmas morning, December 25th."

"That doesn't make much sense."

"It is about the spirit of giving, Raven!" Starfire says. When Raven raises an eyebrow at her, she deflates a little. "It is true, I do not much understand either, but…" She brings her hands together in a sedate show of glee. "It is colorful and musical and fun, and it is about spending time with family." Here, Starfire seems to cut herself off. She gives Raven a sad, meaningful look, and Raven understands why a holiday about giving presents to loved ones appeals to Starfire, who is so far from home. In considering this, Raven thinks Starfire is imploring her to understand, too. This is a common thread between them and Starfire is considerably more desperate to be and feel included.

It doesn't take empathic senses to realize that the mood has taken a somber turn. Of course—she and Starfire are the only ones so far from their homes, but Beast Boy and Robin had both lost their parents and Cyborg had lost his mother and all but disowned his father. Naturally, on a day for the express purpose of fostering familial love and generosity, they'd all be feeling a little dour. Raven had never experienced loss quite like they had, but as she looks around the room, the sunlight catching the ornaments on the tree and twinkling, she thinks that, as she's been getting to know her teammates, she could imagine how heavy the loss would feel.

Raven settles her gaze back on Starfire. "And we're family now," she states and truthfully, it sounds a little like an epiphanic _"Oh_."

The dazzling smile Starfire gives her could've blinded. "Oh, you _do_ understand!" she says, flying over to Raven in a flash and gathering her up in her arms. Only Raven's quick reflexes and handy telekinesis save her tea from spilling. Over Starfire's shoulder, Raven sees Beast Boy and Cyborg sporting twin looks and, from what her empathy is telling her, she's sure that if she could turn her head she'd see a matching expression on Robin's face. It's a somewhat rankling mixture of fondness and amusement that Raven would prefer not to sense from them.

Wishing to put some space between herself and Starfire without being rude, Raven, almost instantly sorry for doing so, asks, "You said it was musical?"

As she'd hoped, Starfire pulls away. "Apparently humans have many songs for the Christmas festivities."

"You bet," Cyborg says from across the room where he'd taken the liberty of turning on the stereo. "You girls are going to be treated to some classics today."

While Cyborg and Beast Boy debate over which song to start with, Robin, trepidation in his voice, asks, "So this is okay? You'll celebrate with us?"

Starfire had returned to decorating the tree with renewed vigor. At the rate she's going and with the amount of ornaments still left in the box, Raven is sure that she and Beast Boy would have every branch of that tree adorned with some trinket before the day was over. Where _had_ all those ornaments come from, anyway?

"You really want me to?" Raven says. Though she hasn't been on Earth long by this point, she'd spent enough time to be incredibly aware that, according to Earth customs, she was much more stoic and dark than people liked. Not really a demeanor conducive to celebrating anything, let alone as bright a holiday as Christmas seemed to be.

"Of course. You said it, we're family," Robin says, grinning even as the bickering over the stereo continues, an appropriate complement to his proclamation. She and Starfire may have quite a bit in common being as foreign as they are, but one thing Raven does not share with anyone else is that she's never really known a family. Before coming to Earth, she'd never given the matter any thought.

Now that she knows, though, there's no going back.

"Then yes. I'd like to," Raven says with some hesitation, but also with conviction. There is still a great deal she doesn't understand about what they're doing or why, and she has many questions she wants to ask, but she supposes she could ask later or do some research herself. She'd made her teammates happy enough for the moment and she doesn't want a repeat of their consternation with her dearth of understanding.

Robin, even without her empathic powers, is still very astute, and must infer what's going on in her head because he says, "I know it must seem really weird, and I can explain it more to you later, if you want. Starfire just got a more detailed explanation of the same thing since she's been here all morning."

Raven glances down at the pine needles covering the floor around them and says, "Wake me up next time. I can teleport the tree in for you."

Robin chuckles. "You can still teleport it out for us once Christmas is over."

"No more Mariah Carey!" Cyborg says, loudly enough that it's apparent this debate has been going on for a while and has reached a tipping point. "You played it on repeat all morning and it's about time we listen to something else."

"But Rae hasn't even heard it! And it's a classic!" Beast Boy says, exaggeratedly pouting in a way that suggests he's losing the argument and knows it.

" _No_ , BB." Then he seems to find something on the screen on his arm because he forms a wide, mischievous grin. "Oh, but I think you'll like this."

Beast Boy leans over to read the song title and snickers. It doesn't take any more approval than that for Cyborg to select it, letting it blast throughout their living room.

There's a brief, jovial opening, before a woman's voice—a woman's? It sounds perhaps a little childish, or high or nasally. At any rate, the singer launches into her verse without further ado: _I want a hippopotamus for Christmas…_

Raven is bewildered. Robin groans, Starfire laughs, and Beast Boy transforms into a hippopotamus in the middle of their living room with his mouth open in something approximating a cheeky smirk.

 _Only a hippopotamus will do…_

Cyborg claps, egging him on, as Beast Boy stomps around in a clumsy dance routine appropriate for something as bulky and uncoordinated as a hippo. Starfire takes another break from decorating to watch in delight as Beast Boy makes a joyous fool of himself. Raven wonders how her morning has devolved this far.

 _Don't want a doll, no dinky tinker toy…_

Even Robin, who'd known this little performance was coming the moment the song opened, is beginning to enjoy it. There are no neighbors to bother and the tower is as strong and sturdy as anything, so having a hippopotamus dancing around their living room isn't of much concern. Nor is it all that odd for a mostly group of meta human teenagers. Beast Boy's stomping around might've scattered the pine needles again and shook the tree, sprinkling more pine needles onto the floor for Robin to vacuum, but he doesn't have the heart to put a stop to it.

 _I want a hippopotamus to play with and enjoy…_

Beast Boy gives a deep bellow, prompting Starfire to float over and hug him around his thick neck. The gleam in his eye tells Raven that he is relishing giving the performance just as much as his teammates are enjoying watching it. It's goofy and ungainly, but Raven is glad she came for tea this morning.

 _I want a hippopotamus for Christmas… I don't think Santa Claus will mind, do you?_

Before Raven could ask who Santa Claus is, Beast Boy, perhaps forgetting himself for a moment, turns to face her, looking as determined as a hippo can. She has the presence of mind to set her mug down (which she hasn't even gotten to try yet) before Beast Boy barrels over, making a grand ruckus the whole way. He snorts as he reaches her and nudges her with his sizable snout, especially compared to someone as small as her.

She groans.

 _He won't have to use a dirty chimney flue… Bring him through the front door, that's the easy thing to do._

She doesn't have a chance to threaten him. To her teammates' great mirth and her chagrin, Beast Boy pushes his snout into her hard enough to sweep her off her feet and then with a surprisingly gentle, controlled toss, flips her over to land sideways on his back, face up and covered by her hair and cape. She feels their anxiety but hears them laughing anyway and if asked, she would insist that she was only smiling because she was absorbing too much of _their_ merriment.

 _I can see me now on Christmas morning creeping down the stairs…_

"All I wanted was tea," Raven complains once she manages to properly rearrange her hair and cloak. Beast Boy flicks his tiny ears in what Raven interprets to be a rather sarcastic manner and thunders back over to the center of the living room as though to show off the prize on his back, who thankfully has not sent him to another dimension. Yet.

"Aw, don't tell me you're not having fun, Rae," Cyborg says, relaxed but standing protectively by the stereo. Beast Boy might be in hippopotamus form now, but his reflexes are too quick to be trusted and Cyborg suspects he might break something if they listen to one more rendition of _All I Want For Christmas Is You_ before Christmas actually arrives.

 _Oh, what joy and what surprise when I open up my eyes and see a hippo hero standing there!_

Before Raven could attempt to refute, Beast Boy gives an even louder bellow as though to say, _Hey, that's me!_ He gives Starfire a wide, toothy, hippo-grin. Raven can't see very clearly, but it's actually kind of cute, if bizarre.

That is, until he bucks in his little hippo-dance, sending her into the air. Not to be caught unaware again, this time she catches herself and levitates away from Beast Boy, who doesn't seem to mind that he's lost a passenger. He's enjoying himself far too much.

The chorus repeats and Raven, feeling a little out of place amongst her more chipper teammates, floats back over to Robin and her abandoned tea. She's relieved to see steam still coming off her cup when she picks it up.

"This will all end after December 25th, right?" Raven asks Robin quietly. She finally takes a sip of her tea and while it tastes the same as it always has, somehow it's a little less satisfying than she'd like. It might have something to do with getting thrown over a hippopotamus's back, she thinks.

"Until next year." He leans back to kick the vacuum into gear again, its noise rivaling Beast Boy's shuddering steps and leaps. "Enjoy it while it lasts."

"Wait, Robin," Raven says, but her voice is drowned out by the combination of the vacuum, Beast Boy's stomping, and the music. It's a discordant cacophony, one that assaults more than soothes, but, she supposes, this is Christmas, and this is family. Maybe it's worth it to sacrifice her sanity every now and then, if this is what she earns in return.

Maybe.

Her musing is stalled when Cyborg, with a grin that promises nothing good, changes the song, shouting over the din that they'd all had enough of a hippo galumphing around their living room. Beast Boy snorts mightily but shifts back to human anyway. A few expectant beats later:

 _I saw mommy kissing Santa Claus…_

Beast Boy howls with laughter and Cyborg looks far too pleased with himself. Raven's and Starfire are equally nonplussed. And Robin?

Robin casts a telling, worried glance up to the ceiling. He thoroughly scans the entirety of it before his shoulders relax and he continues vacuuming. Starfire catches this too and, realizing that Raven will be no help, she raises her voice over all the noise to ask: "Please, who is Santa Claus? And why is the mommy kissing them?"

Raven is glad Starfire is the one to ask because Cyborg snorts and Beast Boy's practically rolling. Starfire's a little embarrassed, but not too insecure, not like she would've been. Perhaps it's a good thing that Robin hadn't heard her call for him a minute ago.

Robin stops vacuuming long enough for Beast Boy to catch his breath and Cyborg to lower the volume so that they can speak without raising their voices again. Beast Boy, heaving and wiping tears from his face, waves a hand at Cyborg, leaving the explanation to him.

"Santa Claus is like the Christmas guy," Cyborg says, a little lamely. Picking up steam, he continues, "He's like a character for kids. He's big and jolly with a huge white beard and a red suit."

Cyborg is genuinely patient and Raven feels a rush of affection for him. She could escape now with her tea and what answers she'd gleaned so far, but she finds herself rooted to the spot, needing some sort of closure. Despite herself, she doesn't want to miss anything else.

"He lives in the North Pole and rides around the world in a sleigh pulled by reindeer, putting Christmas presents under the tree during the night for kids to find on Christmas morning." He frowns. "Now that I say that out loud, it _does_ sound kinda weird…"

"Dude," Beast Boy says, "the more we try to explain Christmas, the weirder it gets."

"But it is just a story, yes?" Starfire asks.

"Yeah, Star," Robin says. "Like I said earlier, the truth is that parents put their kids' presents under the tree. They just tell their kids that it's Santa Claus."

"Believing in Santa Claus was the _best_ ," Beast Boy says. He roots through the box of ornaments and produces a flat glass one in the shape of a cartoon character that more or less fits the description Cyborg gave. He holds it up so that the sunlight glints off it, making this Santa character appear warm and vibrant.

"Bet you were the kid who tried to stay up to catch him," Cyborg says. Raven privately agrees that it does sound like something Beast Boy would do. But it also sounds like something Robin might do. And something even she might do.

But she doesn't think she and Robin would've done it as children.

"Oh, yeah," Beast Boy says. He smiles fondly at the ornament in his hand and then loops the string around an empty branch just above his head. Santa spins slowly in place, catching the light and then letting it go again, looking as silly as he did when Beast Boy pulled him from the box. "I always fell asleep, though."

"You were probably a busy kid," Cyborg says softly, briefly abandoning his post despite the music still playing, albeit at a rather low volume, to put a hand on his shoulder.

Raven wonders, but doesn't ask, when they all stopped believing. Part of her wishes she had had the chance to believe in something whimsical and magical like a jolly man bringing her presents to wake up to. Her magic was far more occult. Not so good for excited children, from what she understands of children.

Not to mention that she'd never received a present.

"Best present I ever got was a football," Cyborg says. It seems mundane, but he adds, "That was when I learned how to play and started getting interested in sports. It was the only time in my life my parents really supported it."

"Mine was a toy boat," Beast Boy says. How young he must've been to be entertained by something so simple, Raven thinks. It's hard to picture a young Beast Boy, content with a handheld boat.

Robin's eyes are cast downward, but he adds, "Mine was a cape." He tugs uncomfortably at his collar. That might explain why he includes a cape in his superhero getup.

"We did not have holidays for giving gifts on Tamaran," Starfire says slowly, "but I did receive many presents from my parents. I always loved the dresses." Her smile is a little sad and very wistful. It's been a long time since anyone gave her a new dress, something fanciful and fun instead of her more "practical" warrior garb, the clothes she wears on a regular basis. Raven has seen her in a dress before and it's a sight to behold.

A football. A toy boat. A cape. A dress.

Raven is dreading the impending question.

It comes from Robin. "What about you, Raven?"

"Yeah, what's the best gift you ever got?" Beast Boy asks.

They're all looking at her expectantly. Raven catches her reflection in her murky tea, observing her dispassionate expression looking back at her. She can't tell if it's forced. "I've never received one," she says. This never bothered her before, but she knows it'll bother them, and that bothers her. Part of her fleetingly wishes she'd never learned about Christmas.

What she hadn't known couldn't have hurt her. Until now.

"What? Seriously?" Cyborg says. Raven's silence is answer enough.

"That is unacceptable!" Starfire declares, hands on her hips. "I do not know what things were like where you grew up, but here, you are among family, and family give gifts."

"Now you're getting the spirit of Christmas!" Beast Boy says, rejuvenated. He jumps and transforms into a reindeer with impressive, elegant antlers. He stomps a hoof, raises his head, and pushes his chest out. Starfire doesn't know what it is she's looking at, but she's enraptured by the majesty of it.

"A reindeer, Star," Robin says. "Like Santa has."

"Oh, I see."

Lest Raven think she's off the hook, Cyborg walks over to her and asks, his voice warm and a little sorry, "You've really never gotten a present before, Rae?"

She shakes her head. Brings her tea to her lips. Doesn't look up until she does and his emotion combined with her own is enough to make her look away again.

Willing it to stop and feeling the need to offer an explanation, she weakly says, "It… wasn't the thing to do."

The truth is, gifts were not uncommon on Azarath, but they never came her way. The monks were too concerned about any attachments she might form or considerable surprise or happiness she might experience. Even positive emotions could be dangerous. Now she could keep things under wraps, but Azarath was long behind her. Anyone who might've ever cared to give her a gift had long since been dissuaded by the fear of what she was and what she could do; she didn't think her well-honed control would be enough to convince anyone that she was worthy of anything.

Except, of course, for the Titans.

"Guess we'll have to change that," Robin says and Beast Boy stomps his hoof again and snorts in support.

Raven gazes around at them, feeling the rush of affection she'd felt towards Cyborg earlier repeat itself as she regards each of them in turn. They look back unflinchingly, resolved and sentimental. Maybe the pacifist monks of Azarath were fundamentally put off by everything Raven ever was or could be, perhaps the denizens had even hated her, but her teammates really cherished her for who she was—or who they currently knew her to be.

That would have to be enough.

For now.

Raven would indeed enjoy it while it lasted.

"I think I already got a hippopotamus for Christmas," she says, gesturing towards Beast Boy. He whinnies in delight and changes back to a hippo, stretching his mouth open wide. Her teammates laugh, allowing her to deflect, but she can tell that she has more than one reason to look forward to December 25th. It feels a little weird but not unwelcome to be anticipating something good.

"By the way," she says, casting a suspicious look to Robin. "What were you looking for on the ceiling earlier?"

A moment of silence follows her question. "Ooh," Cyborg crows, "that's a great idea, Rob!" Beast Boy, understanding, turns into a hyena and rolls onto his back to give a wild, hysterical laugh. "I'll go get the mistletoe!" Cyborg says, jogging out of the living room.

"Mistletoe?" Starfire asks.

Robin flushes.

Though Raven's managed to nearly finish her tea, she decides to stick around. She wants to know what exactly "mistletoe" is, what it has to do with ceilings, and why Robin is looking so flustered while Beast Boy couldn't be getting more of a kick out of this.

There really is something to be said for having a pine tree in your living room and getting a hippopotamus for Christmas after all.


	2. Zoology and Other Earthly Lessons

**Another installment, very in line with the first. I probably should make it clear that this is intended to be a series of one-shots.**

 **This one is set very early on, after the Titans meet but otherwise pre-series. Passing episode reference to 4x07, "The Prophecy" and a more specific reference to 5x10, "Go!".** **A note on a brief reference to S.T.A.R. Labs: technically, they don't have a site in Jump City, but they do have one in New York, which is where the comic version of the Teen Titans start out, so I'm conflating the two a little to suit me.**

 **Chapter summary: Raven receives an impromptu lesson in zoology.**

* * *

The Titans were, Raven supposed, "hanging out." She'd only first heard the term upon meeting Beast Boy and hadn't known what it meant. In the weeks that it took for the tower to be built (a relatively quick process with S.T.A.R. Labs at Cyborg's disposal combined with their superpowers), she visited the library and tried to find out. (The active library, that is; not the dilapidated one housing ancient, eldritch secrets, which she knew instinctively to avoid.) She crept in during the night, after the lights were off and everyone had gone home. It was still and quiet, blissfully absent of the distractions that came with being surrounded by other people. Using her telekinesis, she flipped on a reading light and perused books until she found what she was looking for, a jokey but helpful guide to English slang, colloquialisms, and vernacular. For the most part, even having grown up knowing English, she wasn't familiar with a great deal of what the book had to share. Much of it was vulgar or otherwise downright stupid, but at least she knew then what Beast Boy had meant by "hanging out." More or less.

This all came back to her as she looked up from the book hovering in her lap. She became aware of Beast Boy and Cyborg, who were sitting on the couch behind her, playing a video game. So far, video games were not one of her favorite Earth pastimes, but the boys seemed to enjoy it and even bond over it, despite their bickering and jostling. It was all good-natured ribbing, Raven sensed. She felt amusement, excitement, anticipation, and even love from them. If that bright, loud game gave them all that, who was she to take it away from them, even if it made her a little antsy and sometimes (often) gave her headaches?

In her periphery, Starfire and Robin were sitting at the kitchen counter. Robin was sipping from a mug of coffee and reading a newspaper, which Raven had learned was an inky almost-book, printed every day to give the denizens of Jump City the latest news from around the world. It was remarkable, Earth being so large, that they could have global news somehow, miraculously, delivered to their tower every morning, but Earth was full of such curiosities. Starfire was preoccupied painting her nails, a little bit of pointless pampering she liked to indulge in because it was colorful, feminine, and very earthlike. The paint chipped off quickly in their line of work, so she'd remove it with nail polish remover after a day or so. Even so, Starfire liked picking out the colors and admiring how pretty her nails were and she even liked the smell of the nail polish remover, regardless of how long the paint lasted. Satisfaction rolled off her in waves.

This, Raven suspected, was "hanging out." They weren't all interacting, but they could've been doing what they were in private. Instead, they elected to go about their business in their main public space, in each other's company, just for the sake of surrounding one another. It was still a foreign idea, yet here she was, doing it anyway without even having made the conscious decision. It was as though she'd simply appeared here. She looked down at the open book in her lap, the words as meaningless as a foreign language. Every time she tried to refocus and recall the characters she'd been so invested in a few minutes ago and what they were doing, the words swam away and her gaze shifted to somewhere beyond the page.

Raven was so caught up pondering "hanging out" and all its implications that she didn't notice the commotion behind her. It slowly registered that there was some sort of scuffle, the couch shaking and Beast Boy and Cyborg's voices rising.

"—grass stain!" Cyborg said, followed by a jerk and an "oof!", both large enough that they had to have come from him. Beast Boy gave a high-pitched chatter, a strange sound to Raven. She knew he must've shifted, but she couldn't imagine—

She looked up in time to see Beast Boy in the form of a creature so small that he could surely fit in the palm of her hand. He was standing on the back of the couch, chattering at Cyborg. He had a thin striped tail longer than himself, which she watched as it draped itself over the edge of the couch and twitched. It almost sounded like Beast Boy was cackling.

It must've sounded that way to Cyborg too because he swiped at Beast Boy, who reflexively leapt back and over the back of the couch. Before he could land in her book as something potentially larger Raven reached out and caught him by the tail, Beast Boy letting out a surprised trill. She dangled him in front of her, examining him with a scowl. He trilled again, shyly.

"You almost landed in my book," Raven said.

Beast Boy gave a short, sharp squeak, so high that Raven winced. She scrutinized him a moment longer, noting the soft fur between her fingers like nothing she'd ever felt before. Though he was currently in animal form, whatever animal he was, Raven could still sense how apologetic he was.

And how scared he was.

Raven saw her reflection in his eyes, which looked more earnest on such a small, primatial face, and sighed. She hadn't known him long, but she took pity on him. "It's okay," she said. He relaxed a little, the sharp edge of his fear dulling. "What are you, anyway?" He started to wriggle and chatter, but the fear she still sensed from him more than anything prompted her to set him down gently.

Once he was safely on the ground he shifted back to human and scooted backwards, away from her, looking a little sheepish. Neither of them were comfortable around each other yet, but Raven thought she hid it better than that.

"Uh, hey, Raven," he said. He sounded tenser than he did when talking to Cyborg. He rubbed his lower back, lowered his eyes to the floor between them, and smiled nervously. "That kinda hurt. That tail wasn't prehensile, you know."

"Oh. Sorry." Coming from her, it didn't sound convincing, but she really _was_ sorry. He might get on her nerves, but the solution was to establish boundaries, not instill fear. Foolish though it might be, she hoped that this time things would be different. She was still prepared for him to start recoiling in revulsion and avoiding her like so many had before. Already she had to contend with knowing that he was still so uncomfortable and wary of her to an extent he wasn't with their other teammates. She didn't want to cope with him being frightened, too.

"It's okay," he said. Echoing her own words back to her set him a little more at ease. When he looked at her, there was no longer as much anxiety. Raven didn't smile, but she smoothened her brow and closed her book expectantly.

At the thump of the heavy book, Beast Boy gave a start. "Oh! Right! I was a pygmy marmoset."

It was a rare occasion when Beast Boy knew something Raven didn't. She might've expected him to be boastful, but to his credit, he was modest. In fact, he seemed excited to share. "They're the smallest monkeys in the world, native to South America, but there are some smaller primates. The smallest is the mouse lemur." To illustrate, he shifted to another primatial creature, one that wasn't so easy to look at; its eyes were large and bulging, the pupils so small they could be missed entirely. Thankfully, he shifted back to human after just a few moments.

Above her, Cyborg was leaning over the back of the couch. "Show off," he said, miffed about whatever had set off the scuffle in the first place.

"Oh, Beast Boy!" Starfire said, flying over to join them on the floor behind the couch, her nails already dry. "You were so cute!"

"See?" Beast Boy said, sticking his tongue out at Cyborg. "Starfire liked it. And I bet Raven did too. Huh, Raven?"

"You don't have to answer that," Cyborg said lowly. Raven didn't know how she would've answered, anyway.

"Your 'pygmy marmoset'," Starfire said slowly, trying out the words that, despite her ability to absorb language, still sounded peculiar on her tongue. "That was an 'animal', yes?"

Behind Beast Boy, still seated at the counter with his coffee and newspaper, Robin looked up. He'd probably been paying attention since the moment Starfire came over, but he was good at listening whilst looking like he wasn't. However, he now set his newspaper down and openly watched the huddle of teammates behind the couch.

Meanwhile, Beast Boy and Cyborg were both giving Starfire odd looks. She hugged herself, glancing between the two of them. "Did I say something wrong?"

"You don't know what animals are, Star?" Beast Boy asked, his ears drooping. Animals were his livelihood; Raven supposed it might make sense that he'd be a little disappointed.

"I do not know what 'animals' refers to," Starfire admitted.

Then again, how could any of them expect Starfire, an alien, to know or understand what animals were? She'd learned their language instantly, through preternatural means; so of course, she knew the word, but she knew it without context. The boys had overlooked it, but Raven understood this in a split second. The ability to learn someone else's language in an instant was handy, but could only do so much. It was no supplement for life experience, of which Raven herself had very little.

Starfire went on. "We have wildlife on Tamaran," she said, "but not like anything I have seen you turn into, Beast Boy."

"Oh," he said, scratching his head. He glanced at Raven as though to ask her something, but then seemed to think better of it. When he turned away, Raven told herself she was relieved. "Well, yeah," he said, "a pygmy marmoset is an animal. That's what I do, turn into animals." He demonstrated by turning into a small housecat, one of the few animals Raven could name on sight, and rubbing up against Starfire's knee. When she hesitated, he put his paws on her leg and pushed his head into her hand, forcing her to run her palm down his sleek back.

"You want me to pet you?" she asked, brow furrowed. She did so, her fingers rigid and her movements stiff at first, but soon got into a rhythm as she became accustomed to it. Beast Boy purred loudly, tail curling around his back paws and his eyes closing. Starfire continued petting him, looking quite awestruck about something so mundane. She asked, "What is that noise you are making?"

Beast Boy opened his eyes, but then let them slide closed again. When it was clear that he was unwilling to pull away and shift back to human, Cyborg said, "He's purring, Star. It's something some cats do automatically that means they're happy. Or afraid." Beast Boy's ears flicked in approval.

Starfire stopped petting him, her hand hovering just above his scruff. "You are not afraid of me Beast Boy, are you?"

Beast Boy meowed—or, what Raven inferred to be a meow, from what she knew of cats—and pushed himself back into Starfire's palm, so she resumed petting him. "I will take that as a no," she said. No, Beast Boy did not fear Starfire, Raven could sense that much. He would never fear Starfire.

The petting motion was natural to Starfire now. Raven watched avidly, as though the sight were as enthralling to her as the book she'd been absorbed in not too long ago. For while she recognized and could name a common domestic housecat, she'd never actually seen one in person before, let alone touched one.

"This cat form is delightful," Starfire said. "You are very soft."

Raven thought of the pygmy marmoset she'd held, or more like dangled, not too long ago and wondered if cat fur felt the same—if all mammals that had fur or hair felt the same. She knew a smattering of basic zoology from some old texts that had not been part of her curriculum and from her evenings spent hiding in the Jump City library. But when it came down to it, she knew very little outside of what was on paper. Cyborg had mentioned that the sound Beast Boy was making was purring; Raven knew what purring was, what it meant, and what animals made that sound, but had never heard it before. Maybe because she knew it to be a sound of contentment and maybe because she could sense that very contentment, Raven found it to be soothing.

After a while, Raven couldn't say how long, Starfire stilled. When he hadn't been pet for a few moments, Beast Boy opened his eyes and gazed up at her. Raven blinked, regaining her senses and heard Cyborg shifting, as though they were both coming out of a trance. What could have entranced Cyborg so? Cyborg, who was surely the most worldly out of all of them, and to whom a common housecat must be nothing of importance? For all her new teammates didn't know about her, there was a great deal Raven had yet to learn about them, too. "Are all your animals like this?" Starfire asked finally.

"Nah," Cyborg said. Beast Boy, eager at the opportunity to show off, took a few steps back and contemplated his next move, tail swishing. "Right now, BB's just a common housecat. There are lots of kinds of housecats, called breeds, and lots of other kinds of cats. And cats are only one type of animal…"

While Cyborg discussed cats, Beast Boy demonstrated first a handful of housecats, turning into a large fluffy one with a long tail, then one with hardly any tail at all, then a hairless one, then something with very long hair and a small, snubbed face. Raven guessed these were breeds, but couldn't name them. The texts she'd managed to read on zoology, which was not a subject particularly relevant to her life until now, did not include many pictures, or at least not enough to cover even a fraction of Beast Boy's arsenal.

Then, Beast Boy shifted into a much larger animal, with a shaggy mane around its neck and a long, thin tail, tufted at the end. When he opened his jaws, what had previously been small, pointed teeth were now large, formidable canines, and the sound that came out was hardly a meow. It was low and threatening and despite herself, Raven shuddered and shrank back before she could stop herself. Starfire, though awed, seemed to have a similar reaction, hovering off the floor where she'd been seated and moving a few paces back.

" _That_ is a cat?" Starfire asked, caught by surprise. From his spot at the counter, Robin laughed good-heartedly. Raven had nearly forgotten he was there, and to be reminded was somehow embarrassing. She hadn't thought Beast Boy, Cyborg, or Starfire had noticed her recoil, but Robin might've.

"A lion, Star," Robin said. "King of the animals." Evidently, Raven was not the only one who'd neglected their leader; all three of their teammates turned their heads to look at him. He set his empty mug down and shrugged. "What? I was finishing my coffee. And I already know what cats are."

"So do I," Cyborg said. He waved a hand down to Raven and said, "Rae probably does too. You don't see _us_ avoiding this."

Raven was reticent, but no liar. With her normal disdain, Raven could've rolled her eyes and said something sarcastic about how ridiculous and unnecessary this all was because of _course_ she knew what cats were, how could she not? She could've excused herself, citing boredom or a need to meditate, or she could've said anything at all and her teammates wouldn't have thought twice. Instead, there was a moment punctuated by her silence, broken only by Beast Boy grunting and tossing his head. Raven resisted the urge to look up at Cyborg, to see what he'd made of it. He might not have made anything at all.

At any rate, Beast Boy was not about to let an awkward silence slide. He turned back to human and said, "C'mon, Rob. Join us. This is fun. We're having fun. Right, guys?" He looked around to the three of them, his gaze quickly skipping over Raven and settling pleadingly on Starfire, his best hope for support, and the person he was doing this for—as far as he knew, anyway.

" _You_ are," Cyborg said. Beast Boy huffed and turned into a snake of some sort, with a flat hood around its neck. He coiled most of his body, lifted his head high, reared back, and spit at Cyborg, who yelled and jerked back. That got Robin laughing again, which only helped to serve a now very satisfied Beast Boy's point. He darted his forked tongue out and let his hood close.

"Ugh," Cyborg said, wiping spit off his face. "Wait, is that venom? Can you _make_ venom?"

Beast Boy only gave a lazy flick of his tongue.

"I do not think this one is so cute," Starfire said, leaning in close to examine his smooth scales. "It looks very different from the cats."

"That's a snake, Star," Robin said, since Cyborg was busy trying to clean off the possibly venomous spit. "Specifically, a cobra. A spitting cobra. I don't know what kind, though."

Starfire lifted a hand. "May I?"

Beast Boy swiveled his head and raised it to flick his tongue at Starfire's finger, which she took as consent to run her fingertip over the back of his head. Again, Raven watched, mesmerized. She knew what a snake was, could define it and perhaps even give a rough description, but she'd never seen one, and had never imagined that it would have such dark eyes and such glossy scales. As she watched Starfire's finger glide steadily, slowly down Beast Boy's back, Raven tried to imagine what it would feel like.

"You are cold," Starfire said, "and very smooth. You are like a spudling from Tamaran, but less… slimy. Tell me, do humans eat these 'snakes'?"

"Eww, no," Cyborg said emphatically, leaning over the back of the couch again. He looked unaffected by the potential venom, at least for now. "I like meat, but those would be _nasty_."

"You have never tried?"

"Star," Robin said, "there are some animals you just don't eat."

Starfire didn't appear to be placated by this, but she let the matter drop for now. Her attention was again caught up with Beast Boy, whose form was so spectacularly different from his previous feline ones that she seemed to be in disbelief. As she inspected Beast Boy further, her expression fell. "I do not think I like these 'snakes' very much," she said, pulling away and looking at her finger as though she expected to see something rubbed off on it. She curled it against her palm and looked back at Beast Boy.

Raven wasn't sure what made her say it, but she nonetheless found herself saying, "I think they're cool."

Hearing her voice for the first time since the pygmy marmoset that kicked off this whole scene, her teammates turned to her. Raven, feeling their eyes like lasers, became a little timid. But what she'd said wasn't all that surprising or out of character, and so the attention didn't last long. Beast Boy raised the tip of his tail in what might've been thanks. Then his serpentine eyes glinted, unnervingly humanlike. Raven's eyes narrowed.

In the next moment he was shifting into a bird, one Raven knew very well. She scowled. He cawed merrily in response and came to perch on her shoulder, his sharp talons digging into her skin and his weight making her shoulder ache.

"Not funny, Beast Boy," she said. He flapped his wings and gave an ugly croak as though mocking her. Given his shyness earlier, he was being rather bold now. Raven would've been glad for it were it not at her expense; as it was, she swatted at him and he gave a raspy call of protest, only to switch to her other shoulder.

"I do not understand," Starfire said, sitting back with her legs crossed and head tilted. "Beast Boy is a joke?"

"He's a raven, Star," Raven said, practically growling, which only delighted Beast Boy more. "It's a kind of bird." Lest he be too pleased with himself, Raven yanked his tail feathers, causing him to squawk in alarm and flap his wings. To her frustration, he lost his balance but not his grip, tearing the fabric of her leotard and scratching the skin beneath. She let go of him then, both disgruntled. Cyborg was stifling a laugh, his sense of self-preservation stronger than Beast Boy's. It hadn't taken them long to learn better than to laugh at Raven, but at least Cyborg made a stronger effort not to. Raven appreciated it, but she could sense his amusement as clearly as if he were truly laughing. Robin's, too.

Robin…

Starfire was leaning forward in wide-eyed wonder to see Beast Boy in his raven form, even if he wasn't staying still. Beast Boy was a constant mess of flapping wings and mussy feathers as he tried to keep his balance while Raven did everything she could to dislodge him, short of using her powers. Raven twisted and pushed and even flicked his underbelly, but no matter how much she tried, Beast Boy was persistent and frustratingly crafty. He wasn't going anywhere.

Starfire seemed less interested in the struggle than with Beast Boy himself. In the middle of Raven grumbling some threat to an insouciant Beast Boy, Starfire reached out to touch him. Both Raven and Beast Boy froze. Even Cyborg, who'd been watching with a hand over his mouth, paused, waiting.

They must've made quite the tableau in that moment. Raven's cape was askew, her clothing torn along her shoulders and back, and her hair disheveled. Beast Boy was no better, but he let Starfire pet him as she had when he was a snake, slowly and thoughtfully. Except now Raven was in the picture too, his unwitting perch. And Starfire was leaning in awfully close to better examine Beast Boy with Cyborg and Robin watching too; Raven could feel their stares even without her empathy. The look in Starfire's eyes was of such fascination that Raven could do nothing except gawk, feeling like she was listening to her own echo and yet astonished by how open Starfire could be. She saw mirrored in Starfire's expression exactly what she'd been feeling as she set down a pygmy marmoset, balked at a lion, and admired a cobra. She hoped, fleetingly, a little pridefully, that she'd not been so blatant about it.

Something anxious plucked in her chest. Beast Boy was starting to feel too heavy on her shoulder. Why couldn't Starfire try to reign in her feelings, just a little bit?

Raven said, "Um, Starfire?"

"Yes, Raven?" Starfire was delicately exploring first the feathers on Beast Boy's head and back, then his wings and beak. For his part, Beast Boy seemed a little bemused and unsure. Raven couldn't tell if he was enjoying this exploration or not, but it didn't matter. She couldn't stand looking at Starfire like this anymore.

"You're too close."

"Oh!" Starfire pulled away as though burned, which was a more dramatic reaction than Raven would've liked, but she'd accomplished what she'd wanted, at least. "I am very sorry, Raven," she said, clasping her hands together. Raven said nothing, prodding Beast Boy's underbelly with the side of her finger until he stepped onto that instead, though it wasn't the most natural fit. He felt warmer and heavier against her finger than her shoulder and yet, somehow, it felt better to have him there; familiar, even. She brought her hand down in front of her and, almost automatically, brought her other hand to his back, letting her fingertips stroke his feathers back into place. This close, his pleasant surprise was obvious to her. Otherwise, it would've been easy to forget that he was some sort of human and that she was surrounded by other some-sorts-of-humans who were all watching, watching.

Raven removed her hand from Beast Boy's back and thankfully, Beast Boy didn't respond. A little mischievous, but mostly wanting to shift the spotlight, Raven said, "Don't you have another bird to be?"

Beast Boy cocked his head for a moment then cawed, fluttered his wings, and became something smaller, with a thinner beak. He whistled and took off, making a beeline for Robin, who was not looking so amused anymore. Raven deemed it retribution. She wouldn't be able to recognize a robin on sight, but it wasn't difficult to deduce that the capering, tweeting green bird in Robin's face was a robin itself. To give Beast Boy credit, he'd caught on to her suggestion quickly.

"Very funny, Beast Boy," Robin said, his voice flat. Beast Boy chirped; he clearly thought so.

"Robin is a bird too," Starfire said. "I see." She let Beast Boy taunt Robin a little bit more before saying, "You have many kinds of cats. Do you have many birds as well?"

"Sure," Cyborg said. "Tons. We got hawks, falcons, eagles, owls, shrikes, vultures, sparrows, grackles, blue jays, cardinals, pigeons, seagulls, hummingbirds, woodpeckers… and many kinds of some of those, too. Not to mention birds that _can't_ fly."

Beast Boy flapped away from Robin and, circling over the trio of them, shifted into each bird (or a kind of each) that Cyborg had mentioned in turn. His wingbeats were leisurely and his calls joyous, though the tone and timbre of each bird varied. Raven had to admit that she was impressed. The great majority of the birds she didn't recognize; even some of the names she hadn't recognized. She felt a little foolish and, conscious of how Starfire had looked not long ago leaning over to examine the raven, Raven was careful to make her expression as indifferent as she could.

Beast Boy settled as what Cyborg called a "swallow," an agile but tiny bird, and swooped down to land on Starfire's knee. The swallow seemed more to her liking than the cobra, but being much smaller than the raven, she hardly did more than pat his head with a fingertip.

After some deliberation, Robin stood up and strode over to them. He crouched down to assess Beast Boy, who hid his face under the guise of preening. Robin put his fingers to his mouth and cocked his head, then said, "Impressive, Beast Boy. Your powers are remarkably versatile and could prove very useful." Beast Boy chirped and ruffled his feathers at the compliment.

"Rob, relax a little," Cyborg said. "I know all this responsibility is new and everything, but you don't have to see us as our leader all the time. We're your friends, too."

Robin looked up at Cyborg, who maintained an easygoing smile and posture, though it must've taken him some effort to do under the featureless microscope of Robin's mask. Nonetheless, Robin stood from his crouch as though to give a verdict. "I think you're right, Cyborg," he said, loosely folding his arms and sounding thoughtful. Perhaps it was her empathy speaking, but Raven felt a collective sigh of relief. "I shouldn't just be commending you as a leader, Beast Boy. Your abilities are useful for fighting, but they're also just… cool." He settled on the word uneasily, presumably unused to speaking informally to people his own age. But Raven felt a whispery thrill from him that suggested he liked it.

It wasn't language she nor Starfire would've ever thought to use; Raven had never even heard it used in such a way before meeting Beast Boy and Cyborg. Since she lived here now, with the Titans, maybe she could try out some new vocabulary. Maybe it would help her fit in, which she'd have to do if she didn't want to stick out.

Starfire chose that moment to ask, "Do humans eat these 'birds'?"

Even as a swallow, Beast Boy managed to convey disgust by clacking his beak and skittering away from her. Cyborg, trying not to snort at the distressed swallow, informed her, "BB here's a vegetarian, meaning he doesn't eat meat. But yeah, we eat some kinds of birds. Don't we, BB?"

Beast Boy looked up at him beseechingly. "Why don't you show the girl? You know, for educational purposes."

"We promise we will not try to eat you, Beast Boy," Starfire said. Beast Boy's dejected tweet made it clear that it wasn't much consolation. Nevertheless, he shifted to a larger, far more ridiculous looking bird with billowing feathers, a tail like a fan, and a piece of skin hanging from its neck. He clucked lamely a few times, taking a few lackadaisical steps in a circle to show Starfire—and, unknowingly, Raven. This bird didn't look capable of flight, but he gingerly extended a wing for Starfire to survey anyway.

"Turkey," Cyborg said. "Goes great with gravy."

"And mashed potatoes," Robin added.

Raven didn't eat meat either, since there weren't animals to eat where she was from and even if there were, the society was so strictly pacifist as to never intentionally harm anything or anyone. Even if their lives were at stake, they would never forsake such a strongly held belief. Perhaps it was her pacifist upbringing that made her think so, but she didn't think the turkey looked very appetizing. From the scrunched look on Starfire's face, she (ironically, considering the kinds of things she ate) didn't think so, either.

"Show her another one," Cyborg said, relishing this—whether it was because it was whetting his appetite or making Beast Boy uncomfortable or both, it was hard to say. "Oh," he said, snapping his fingers. "Show her a chicken. Everyone loves chicken."

Beast Boy gurgled in protest, but shifted into a smaller bird, one with a small, sharp beak and smaller pieces of skin along its nick and crest. He clucked, more softly, and chirruped a couple of times and then extended his wing—again, this bird didn't look capable of flight—for Starfire as much as he could. Starfire ran her finger from his shoulder to his wingtip, brushed over the feathers at the tips, and then explored the underside.

During Starfire's hushed, contemplative study of the chicken anatomy, Raven went about making herself look as presentable as she could. There was little she could do now about the rips along her shoulders, but she took a few moments to heal the scratches, making it look like she was brushing off dust as she waved her hand over them. They were superficial and went away easily, but for anyone who might've been looking, it would've been hard to miss the blue glow around her hand as she touched her shoulder. How "hanging out" had devolved into this, she'd never understand. Unless this still _was_ "hanging out," in which case, she was apprehensive about what she'd gotten herself into.

Suddenly, Beast Boy was squawking shrilly, hopping, and flapping, scattering feathers everywhere. Starfire jolted back. "I am sorry, Beast Boy! I did not mean to! I did not know you were so ticklish—"

Her string of apologies was interrupted by Raven sneezing. And sneezing again. And again.

"Bless you," Robin said, once he thought she was done. Raven rubbed her nose, a little dazed, and quietly thanked him. She couldn't remember the last time she'd sneezed. In fact, she wasn't sure if she ever had. After all, since she was unable to get sick, there wasn't much use for sneezing. Or so she'd thought.

"Are you unwell?" Starfire asked.

In lieu of explaining that her half-demon physiology and all the abilities that came with it prevented her from getting sick, she merely said, "No." She began brushing stray feathers off her lap and promptly sneezed again.

"Bless you," Starfire said, sounding unsure. "This is something you say on Earth when somebody sneezes?"

"Mhm," Cyborg said. "You allergic or something, Rae?"

Raven sniffed. She hadn't considered it. Being allergic was very different from being sick. "Maybe."

Beast Boy decided to help her test the theory. He sauntered over and stepped into her lap before she could object, then purposely tried to get near her face. This may have been the point where Raven forcibly removed him from her person, except that she did indeed sneeze again; hard enough, in fact, with him in such proximity, that a small inadvertent burst of her telekinetic energy propelled him into Robin. Robin caught him, though Beast Boy was left a little stunned.

"Sorry," Raven said.

Cyborg guffawed. "Don't worry, Rae. I think we're all a little allergic to Beast Boy."

Robin eyed the chicken in his hands and said, "Okay, I think we've had enough for one day, Beast Boy." The underlying message was, of course, let's not find out what else Raven might be allergic to and risk a more catastrophic outburst. Or maybe it was just plain compassion for her. Either way, Beast Boy complied, jumping to the floor and turning back into human.

Cyborg cracked his knuckles and said, "If you're done boasting now, I think it's time for a rematch."

"Bring it on," Beast Boy said, instantly getting back into the swing of things. He leapt over the back of the couch—still human—and reclaimed his seat and his controller. Within moments the game was starting up again, along with bright flashes and action music.

"This has been enlightening," Starfire said, standing up. To Beast Boy, she said, "Thank you for helping me."

"No prob, Star," Beast Boy said distractedly, already engrossed in the game again. She went to collect her nail polish from where she'd left it on the counter and resume painting. Robin stood as well, brushing a few stray feathers off his leggings.

Raven sniffled again, using her powers to gather up all the feathers. She had half a mind to dump the collection of them on Beast Boy's head as revenge, but afraid she might accidentally trigger her allergies again—that did seem to be the most likely explanation—she opted instead to dispose of them neatly in their trash.

She'd enjoyed herself, she supposed. At least, she had before the entire animal kingdom visited their living room. She wanted to be irritated. They, especially Beast Boy, had distracted her from her reading, been loud and messy, and even made her sneeze; all of this while teasing her and invading her personal space. By every means, she _should_ be irritated. She was _Raven_ , after all; stolid, aloof Raven, who nobody dared cross if they had any brains at all. Her teammates hadn't needed to know her for long to know that much. And yet, she'd condoned all this effrontery. And why?

Sure, it had been intriguing to her, too. Like Starfire, she knew what most animals were, and just didn't have any experience to which that knowledge could be applied. All she'd been exposed to growing up was a variety of birds and, if today's lesson had taught her anything, it had been a small variety at that. Even the cat, which books had helped her understand to be a common animal on Earth, was new and exotic to her. It was like a speech she'd memorized and could recite without much thought, but she'd never actually understood the material or even thought about its contents.

While Raven was a good student, her academic curiosity didn't feel like a sufficient excuse for suffering all these indignities. For that matter, calling what she'd just experienced "suffering indignities" seemed altogether too harsh. As she picked up her book from where she'd left it on the floor, realizing she hadn't even remembered to bookmark or dogear her place, she decided that she didn't really know _what_ to call it, whatever had just happened. Nothing like it had ever happened to her before.

Dumbly, she figured that maybe it was called "hanging out."

She clutched her book to her chest and looked up, only to meet Robin's eyes. Her uncertainty must've shown on her face because he frowned and asked, "Are you okay?"

Raven took stock of herself. Physically, she was fine, not even sore from having sat cross-legged on the floor for that long. The scratches no longer bothered her since she'd covertly taken care of them earlier and the allergies, now that the feathers were gone and Beast Boy was human again, were all but forgotten. Taking stock of herself mentally had become just as easy with practice over the years, though took more focus; even so, she found nothing in disarray. Her emotions were controlled, her powers reigned in. Nothing stood out. In fact, she was content. Surprisingly so.

"I'm okay," she said and meant it. "This was… nice."

When Robin looked at her, he did so closely with a look she recognized: it had been on Beast Boy's face earlier, when he'd wanted to ask her something but decided against it. But Robin, as her de facto leader, had less compunctions about prying when he decided it was necessary, and she wasn't so confident that he would decide it unnecessary. By now, avoiding questions was second nature, so she formulated an excuse.

"I'm going to go change," she said quickly, fingering one of the bigger tears on her shoulder. Robin, seeing the excuse for what it was, kindly stepped aside to let her pass undisturbed out of the living room. For this, Raven was grateful; the less they knew about her, the safer they'd likely all be, in the end. And the less likely they'd be to ostracize her in the meantime, especially this early on in their team days. As she walked down the empty hallway back to her room, she wondered when _their_ safety, out of all people, had started to matter to her. It might have started when she started calling this "hanging out." More likely, it might have happened much earlier, when she'd destroyed the Gordanian ship, once and for all, and declared them, now the Titans, her friends.

 _Friends_. What an otherworldly concept.

It was for her _friends_ , then, that she told them as little about her as possible, at least for now. One day, she might be able to open up to them and admit some very non-Earthlike things like "I don't actually know what animals are" without concern for their safety, but until then, if it ever happened, it was best that any information they had about her was strictly need-to-know.

It was better that way, she told herself as she fetched a clean leotard and changed into it. She rubbed the torn fabric of her old cloak between her fingers, remembering what it had felt like to hold Beast Boy's soft tail, to carry his warm weight, to feel the pinpricks of his talons and the smoothness of his feathers. What would it have felt like to pet the cat or stroke the cobra? What about all the other animals she'd seen him turn into, in and out of battle? Or the animals she'd seen just during her brief few weeks in Jump City—squirrels and mice and dogs? What were they all _like_? For a moment she gripped the torn fabric tightly in her fist, feeling her own cool skin through the holes, and then threw the leotard out. Afterwards, she sat down on her bed, took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and meditated.

* * *

Much later that evening, when everyone else had retired to their rooms for the night, Beast Boy knocked on Cyborg's door. When Cyborg answered, it was to see Beast Boy looking contemplative and serious, which was such an uncharacteristic look to see on him that Cyborg was immediately worried.

"Everything okay, BB?" Cyborg asked, stepping aside to let Beast Boy into his room.

Once the door had slid shut again, Beast Boy said, "Dude, did you see Raven earlier? When I was doing my animal thing for Starfire?"

Cyborg sensed that this was not the time to tease. He suspected he knew what Beast Boy meant, but he asked anyway, "What do you mean?"

"I dunno. I mean, when she asked me what the pygmy marmoset was, and every time I turned into something new, she looked at me like…" He shrugged, his words failing him. "Like she was…"

"Transfixed?" Cyborg suggested.

"Yeah, that. You saw it too. She looked so much like Starfire. And Starfire I get, I mean, she's an alien, she's never been to Earth before. So, of course the animals I change into must seem weird to her, but…"

Beast Boy trailed off, not sure where he was going with his thoughts. "I wanted to ask Raven, earlier," he said, sounding as somber as if he had been confessing, "if she had wildlife where she was from." He looked down at his fingers for a moment, his hands covered by his customary gloves, and asked, somewhat rhetorically, "She's definitely not from Earth, is she?"

Cyborg had been right. It had been something extraordinary to watch someone who was not from Earth experience for the first time something that, for him, was nothing special. It was like watching fireworks for the first time; tilt your head back, keep your eyes wide open, don't look away—something incredible and miraculous is happening and it may never happen again. Blink and you might miss it forever.

If he'd blinked, he might've missed the fireworks in Raven, too. Beast Boy hadn't blinked either.

Cyborg sighed and said, "I always suspected she wasn't, with those powers and the way she looks and all."

"The way she looked at me today," Beast Boy went on, "like she'd never seen those animals before. I'm not even sure she knew what they were. I mean, lots of people don't know what a pygmy marmoset is…"

"You're right, BB," Cyborg conceded. He raised his arm so he could work on the small screen embedded in his forearm with his other hand. "I've never been able to find any record of her. Even you, me, and Robin come up sometimes on the web, but I never could find anything about her. A girl like that, even keeping a low profile, it'd be hard not to be noticed."

Beast Boy watched him tap on the screen for lack of anything else to watch or think about. Once Cyborg found what he wanted, he maneuvered so that Beast Boy could see. "My sensors always indicated that she wasn't fully human, but whatever else she is…" Cyborg shrugged. "They don't recognize it."

The glow of the screen reflected in Beast Boy's face as he processed having his suspicions confirmed. Aside from Robin, they were all at least a little non-human, so that didn't bother him too much, not on its own. It occurred to him that, if Cyborg's sensors, with all Cyborg's experience and knowledge, couldn't detect what Raven _was_ , that perhaps he should be afraid—more afraid than he already was. It occurred to him that he couldn't, _shouldn't_ trust her. There was no telling where she was from, the extent of her powers, or, most worryingly, her intentions. Beast Boy _really_ didn't like knowing. When he looked up, he saw the same troubled look on Cyborg's face. Except that Cyborg had known this for a while and it had never mattered to him. He never treated Raven any differently. At least, not that Beast Boy had noticed. That had to mean… something.

Cyborg shut off the screen. It occurred to Beast Boy that he knew what it meant: it meant that, at the end of the day, it didn't matter to him, either. "Do you think she'll ever tell us?" he asked. It went without saying that they would not be asking her directly.

"I don't know, BB."

"I hope she does, one day."

"Me too, BB. Me too."

On his way back to his room, Beast Boy stopped outside Raven's door. When he waited and didn't hear anything, he turned into a cat and pressed himself as close to the door as he dared, ears swiveled and alert, listening intently.

Faintly, he heard her monotonous voice, repeatedly chanting a mantra in what sounded like another language. But, coming from her, it sounded familiar.

Comforted, Beast Boy trotted back to his own room for the night.

* * *

 **One more note regarding Raven being vegetarian: she is vegetarian in the comics and so I'm assuming the reasons for that are strict pacifism and lack of available meat. If it bothers you, you could assume that she later gives up being vegetarian (this is set very early on, of course), or do what I did and take a literal interpretation of the line "I don't eat fake meat."**

 **Finally, thank you to Audrey for your help with this!**


End file.
